New Constitutional Court Attack on Brain Death

Shalom Ouanounou was declared dead in late September. But his family is asking a Toronto court for an injunction to keep him on a ventilator and feeding tube while it pushes to have his death certificate revoked.

Ouanounou's family challenge the Canadian guidelines on brain death, because they do not accommodate religious beliefs like Orthodox Judaism that consider death to be complete cardiac and respiratory failure. The family argues that disregarding those beliefs is a serious assault on Ouanounou's human dignity and religious liberty.

Similar claims were made in the Israel Stinson case. That case is now on appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (No. 17-17153).